ACCORDING to tax manager Kate Moore of ktsowensthom- as, while spring may be on the horizon, the Government is still frozen and not much movement is expected in next week’s Budget.

She said: “The Pre-Bud- get Report in November only really gave us an indication of the things that weren’t going to change – inheritance tax threshold, personal allowances and tax bands, rate of corporation tax – and with a general election imminent, we don’t imagine that serious changes, especially changes that might be bad news for taxpayers, will be announced in next week’s Budget.

“One of the few changes confirmed in the Pre-Budget Report was the 1% increase in National Insurance contributions but this had been announced in last year’s Budget any way.

“National Insurance is one of the big revenue earners for the Government and there is no doubt that the Government does need to generate revenue quickly.

“Another big revenue earner for the Government is VAT so we do expect to see an increase in the VAT rate in future but not in the lead-up to a general election. So we don’t think we’ll see any mention of this in the Budget, but we may well see a VAT increase before the year is out.

“There is also some speculation that the capital gains tax rate will increase. The maximum capital gains tax rate is 18% and when you contrast this with the highest income tax rate of 50%, it may well increase.

“Until quite recently capital gains tax had been taxed as the top slice of income and the 18% rate has only been with us since 2008, so perhaps we’ll see a U-turn on this rate change too.

“Apart from that we are predicting a very uneventful Budget and our bet would be that the tax landscape will remain frozen until after the election, when the newly-elected Government – whichever party that may be – will have to make the tough decisions that we know are needed.”